Even though it's lacking in story and character development, this game is a must have for an FF fan.
There are, however, some things the game developers could've improved on, the story for example. The game focuses more on the side quests than the story itself. You could even say that you can make a whole different game with the side quests alone. Not that they aren't fun, but looking at how great the side quests are, you'd expect the story to be all the more epic. At times it gets pretty boring since you move on ahead for a long time without discovering anything useful about the story. However, every now and then something interesting happens which makes you want to keep playing and find out what happens later. The license boards are exactly the same for each character, so the characters aren't very unique. You could make each character exactly the same if you wanted to. However choosing different types of licenses for different characters will make your party members different from each other and that's what we like to see. The important thing is to closely watch the development of each character in order to avoid repetition.
Those two tings in my opinion are the only things which could take away from the enjoyment of the game, however, I still say that these minor flaws should not stop you from buying and playing the game. It is one of the greatest Final Fantasy games I have ever played, and is a must have for every Final Fantasy fan.